Does anyone have info on Bells House Yeast? I have used it for a 2HA clone and (accidentally) for an SNPA clone. The 2HA clone turned out excellent, and I’ll get a taste of the SNPA clone this evening.
The yeast is very flocculent, and the appearance of the starters (clumpy) and the yeast mud in the bottom of the fermentor leads me to believe its origin is English. Overall its behavior is much like WLP-007.
Charlie
Bell’s yeast is not Chico, as some claim. It ferments with a big krausen, produces an orange ester, and only goes to 11% ABV.
Those that have talked to Larry said his reply was that when he started there were only 3 or 4 yeasts out there, andbitbismone of them. My vote goes to an English strain, which one?
Bell’s yeast is not Chico, as some claim. It ferments with a big krausen, produces an orange ester, and only goes to 11% ABV.
Those that have talked to Larry said his reply was that when he started there were only 3 or 4 yeasts out there, andbitbismone of them. My vote goes to an English strain, which one?
Imperial has the Bell’s house yeast, only sell it at the general store.
My own guess is that Bell’s yeast might be a derivative of Cooper’s. But I could be way off on this of course. It’s only a guess. Based on fruity esters. Personally I’ve picked up pineapple and citrus-like esters in both Cooper’s and Bell’s beers… some of the time… occasionally… maybe.
Similar in the big mess of fluff in the bottle as well. I’d never have thought in that direction, but it is worth considering. Whatever the origin, it has surely changed significantly in Bell’s hands.
Was Cooper’s available in the Homebrew trade in 1985? Or when Larry started his Homebrew shop?
I started in 1992, Cooper’s was around then.
This suggests it’s possible Coopers DIY Beer
Started exporting in '82
Maybe it will go through genetic ID, the we know for sure what it is close to?
Not that I’ve been able to discern yet. But of course anything’s possible.
I googled it and found a post by 303 Brews on this forum that says; “I’m using the Inland Island Eccentric ale, which is the Bell’s house strain.”. Interesting!
My 2HA clone pulled an astonishing FG of 0.8 Plato (temperature corrected). That translates to 1.003 SG, and I have never come close to 1.003 before! The lowest I had previously seen was 1.005, and that only happens once in a blue moon.
The SNPA clone I used the yeast on only got down to 1.006. lol
Charlie
To the best of my own abilities and with very low volume fanfare, I have absorbed and processed the latest data from Langdon et al. and suregork in a new living permalink here (and it also includes a handful of other tweaks) – for convenience the latest July-October 2019 genomic-related updates have been highlighted in purple:
This is a tool and labour of love, intended mostly for my own use, but if you like it that’s cool too. The usual caveats apply… strains listed together are not necessarily exactly equivalent… however, you might perhaps find them “close enough, for most intents and purposes”, which has always been my primary intent. If you don’t like this or find it useful, ignore it. For those interested, from here on out I am going to attempt to maintain the link above as the final permanent link, as a living document, no longer just a snapshot in time, but continually being tweaked at least about once or twice per month or as necessary based on new inputs, which is how it’s been going all year long since I started this in January 2019.
Cheers all and happy yeasting. 
Excellent, Dave! Thank you for putting all of this new information in a nice, understandable format.
I finally caught up with the 20th century…
Effective today, those interested can now enjoy a much easier link to this file. Try this:
Cheers all.
I was surprised to see that SafLager 34/70 and 2035 American Lager are listed as a match.
Maybe…maybe not
Believe what you want, but they are genetic cousins. Most of the matches on this table are not identical (some are), but are close cousins.
This may be of some interest to some people. Master Brewer’s Podcast interviewed a guy from White Labs about how they test to see if a yeast is a lager (hybrid) or an ale. They confirmed that WLP800 is an ale and WLP838 is a true lager strain.
Yes indeed, this was known for a while, I incorporated the updates last autumn-ish.
that was a good episode, i liked that he indicated this kind of research is still in-process and not set in stone and that definitions are simply man made
I haven’t listened to this yet, but this is really interesting to me. Suregork has WLP838 in with the UK ale strains, with S-04, WY1028, and WLP540 being fairly close relatives. I’m curious as to how this lines up if it’s truly a lager strain.